[imagesource:wikipedia]

On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released 475 pages of documentation connected to OJ Simpson, the former NFL star, actor, and famed alleged double killer who was acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her friend.

Simpson, who has always been suspected of ‘getting away with it’, was the main suspect in the 1995 trial that became one of the world’s most-watched popular culture events of the last century.

The majority of the information included in Friday’s release relates to the collection and examination of forensic evidence at the crime scene. They also include documents from an FBI trip to Italy to investigate the manufacture and distribution of Bruno Magli shoes, a rare brand discovered by Los Angeles homicide investigators to have been worn by the murderer.

The docs reveal that at the time, the FBI dispatched agents to Bruno Magli retail distributors with strict instructions: “Under no circumstance mention that this investigation concerns OJ Simpson or the homicide investigation in Los Angeles, California.”

Besides the forensic evidence, the files also include rambling letters sent to the FBI by people who claim to have had ‘premonitions of the murders’.

Despite being found not guilty, the world always looked at Simpson with a degree of suspicion. Eventually, three years after his criminal trial, Simpson was found liable in a civil suit filed by the victims’ families and sentenced to pay $33.5 million (R622 million).

Prior to his high-profile legal entanglements, Simpson was a college football superstar and won the Heisman Trophy in 1968.

His troubles with the law did not end there, and in 2008 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a failed robbery in Las Vegas in which he attempted to recover sports memorabilia that he said had been taken from him. Simpson died at the age of 76 of prostate cancer in April this year.

The release of the documents follows the FBI’s policy of opening up files on individuals after they die.

No doubt Netflix already has interns scouring the pages for anything new, but if true-crime stories are your thing, you can download all 475 pages here.

[source:guardian]